Risk assessment due on soldiers’ quarters, inquest told

FIRE safety checks were to be carried out on a tent in which a soldier slept shortly before it was engulfed in flames, an inquest heard.

Private Rob Wood, from Marchwood, lost his life along with Private Dean Hutchinson, 23, when flames swept through a logistical centre at Camp Bastion in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in the early hours of February 14, 2011.

The soldiers, who served with the Royal Logistic Corps, were sleeping in the tented office so they could respond more quickly when vital supplies arrived at the camp.

The inquest heard how a captain intended to carry out a risk assessment once they had moved into another tent.

Witnesses have described smelling smoke coming from the area in the tent housing a 32-inch flat screen TV, boiler and fridge and seeing flames coming from cabling leading to the air conditioning unit.

The inquest in Salisbury heard that members of the Transport Troop were stationed in an 18ft by 24ft tent, which shortly before the fire had been extended by 50 per cent to include members of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

The Transport Troop were due to take over a neighbouring tent, which had been vacated by the Quartermaster.

Captain Timothy Fitzgerald, who was Privates Wood and Hutchinson’s commanding officer, told of an intention to carry out a fire risk assessment once they had moved into the second tent.

“From my point of view it made sense to do the fire risk assessment when we pushed through (into the Quarter-master’s tent) and the sleeping arrangements were changed,” Capt Fitzgerald said. “Either way the whole dynamics would have changed and I saw that as my opportunity to update assessments.